one block of council flats left

just one block of council flats remains in this area where we work our magic in allocating out jobs to couriersso that multinationals and £500-an-hour law firms and hedge-fund managers who look after billions of pounds can remain healthy and strong making more money in one hour than all the tenants of this last block of council flats leftwill make in their lifetimesput together

just one ugly block of brick and red cladded council flats still standsamongst all of the million-pound lofts and chrome and smoked-glass luxury flats that have sprung up in this area over the last 8-years just one block with 42 flats where couriers and mechanics and school teachers and bus drivers and nurses and firemen and waitresses can still safely keep a roof over their families' heads where they can still wash and cook and put their children into a bed and get them up to go into a school this one block of flats leftsat there like a rotten tooth in a row of perfect molarshousing these workersenabling them to keep their dignity and love as millionaire footballers move in next door as seven-figure-salaried-bankers buy whole floors just so they can have somewhere to stay while in London as people in media hire cranes to lift £30,000 pieces of furniture into their lofts as politicians and councillors plot how best they can make this last ugly block of council flats leftdisappearalong with its infections

This poem was written six months before the tragedy at Grenfell Tower. Film by Ataman Kizilirmak.

Martin Hayes has worked in the courier industry for 30 years. His second book of poetry, When We Were Almost Like Men is published by Smokestack Books and he has another collection coming out with Culture Matters later in 2017.